It's Olay to Not Be Super!

 

Batman: Not Super by 

Stuart Gibbs, Berat Pekmezci (Artist), Taylor Esposito (Letterer)

My Rating: 4.25 out of 5.0 stars

My Review on Goodreads

This was a very fun, cute and age-appropriate introduction to Bruce Wayne, who grows up to become Batman. While it takes some liberties with the storyline in service to the story, it works. Bruce gets into a school for supers (although he has no powers) because his parents endowed the school. All the usual suspects from Gotham (and Batman's gallery of rogues) and Superman as well, attend the school, and they use their powers for their own benefit instead of for the good of others.

Bruce has decided to fight to protect others in the memory of his parents, who were murdered. He isn't sure how to go about it, but he's on the path to figuring it out.

It's so cute to see Bruce as a young boy and not in a super dark way like on the Gotham show (although I enjoyed the show). This story allows for levity and a sense of hope that is often missing in the Bruce Wayne/Batman origin story. It was refreshing to see Bruce as an awkward boy. While I am a Batman/Bruce Wayne superfan, he is often shown as unfallible and someone who doesn't make mistakes. Logically, we know that Bruce had to become Batman and that took a lot of very focused training, educating and evolution. One of the things I love about Bruce is that he is a self-made hero. His super power is that he doesn't give up. I saw this in the young version of Bruce in this story. He has some hijinks that play well for physical comedy in the panels.

I also enjoyed seeing the young characters from the DC verse with their unique quirks, heroes and villains. There were a few characters that I didn't catch, but most I did. I chuckled at them all going to the same school.

The art was really good. Berat Pekmezci is an illustrator to watch for and I would like to check out more of his work. I'm not sure if this is an ongoing series, but I'd definitely keep reading it. I'd loved to see one for Selina Kyle (Catwoman).

I read this pretty fast (while recovering from a bad illness) and it made me smile and kept my spirits up.

Overall Rating: 4.25/5.0 stars.

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The Swamp Has Its Secrets

 

Swamp Thing, Vol.1: The Saga of the Swamp Thing by Alan Moore (writer), 

Stephen R. Bissette (Artist),

 

John Totleben (Artist),

 

Dan Day (Artist

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

My Review on Goodreads

I was reading this over a long period, in spurts. With the craziness of life, I just haven't had much time to read graphic novels, unfortunately. I read this on my Ipad, which is really good for looking at comic panels. I love how the Kindle (Comixology) version allows you to tap on each panel and it magnifies the panel. This is the Alan Moore classic that revamped the character. It's very, very dated in the art style, but that's okay. It's historical. The colors are really bright, almost obnoxiously so. It's an 80s comic printing thing, and as I've studied comic art history, that was kind of fun to experience the medium. I was quite pleasantly surprised at how scary this was. Each story is kind of like a monster of the week format, which I absolutely love. For such an older comic, it really was spooky, scary and disturbing. In fact, this would have made a good Halloween read. I think I finished it in the late spring, so unfortunately, I didn't get to enjoy the spookiness for October. I definitely ship Swamp Thing/Alec and Abigail. Their doomed(ish) romance appeals to my sensibilities. I had watched the short-lived but very good DC TV show Swamp Thing and it was nice to compare it with the comic story (it holds up very well, IMO).

There's something about Swamp Thing that I really dig, so I know I'll be reading more.

I would recommend reading this if you don't mind the dated look of 80s era comic books.

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